Grain-door for freight-cars.



PATENTED JUNE 5 J. ROHRBERG. GRAIN DOOR FOR FREIGHT CARS.

APPLIOTION FILED JULY 6, 1905.

lnventon W`t s ne e Attorneys UNITED, STATES PATENT onirica.

JOHN ROHRBERG, OF SIOUX CITY, IOWA, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO ROHRBERG BROS., OF OSMOND, NEBRASKA.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented J une 5, 1906.

Application filed July 6, 1905. Serial No. 268.441.

T all whom it may concern:

Beit known that I, JOHN ROHRBERG, a citizen of the United States, residing at Sioux City, in the county of Woodbury and State of Iowa, have invented a new and useful Grain-Door for Freight-Cars, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to grain-doors for freight-cars, and has for its object to provide Io a novel construction and mounting of such devices to enable the convenient opening and closing thereof and to insure a grain-tight closing of the doorway.

Another object of the invention is to pro- I 5 vide for the mounting of the grain-door without material alteration of the frame of the car and without in any manner interfering with the mounting operation of the usually slidable exterior door.

2o It is also proposed to have the door'constructed in sections capable of being individually opened and closed, so as to gradually open the doorway from the top downwardlyto give access to the upper surface of .25 the grain contained within the car.

A still further object of the invention is to have the doorway entirely unobstructed across the floor of the car when the door is o en, so as to permit ofthe convenient shov- 3o cling of the grain through the doorway.

With these and other objects in view the present invention consists in the combination and arrangement4 of parts, as will be hereinafter more fully described, shown'in 3 5 the accompanying drawings, and 1particularly pointed out in the appended c aims, it being understood that changes in the form, proportion, size, and minor details ma be made within the scope of the claims wit out 4o departing from the spirit or sacrificing any of the advantages of the invention.

In the accom anying drawings, Figure 1 is a longitudinal agmentary sectional view of a freight-car body having the grain-door of i 'the present invention mounted thereon and partially op en. Fig. 2 is a horizontal longitudinal sectional view thereof. Fig. 3- is a 4cross-sectional viewv on the line 3 3 of Fig. 1.

4 is a detail view similar to Fig. 1, show- 5o ing the grain-door entirely open and the door-supporting track pushed to one side of .the doorway, so as to avoid obstructing the oor of the car between the doorosts.

Like characters of reference designate corresponding parts in each and every figure of 5 5 the drawings.

To illustrate the application and operation of the present invention, there has been shown in the accompanying drawings a portion of a freight-car, including the iioor or 6o bottom 1, joists 2, rising therefrom, a roof or top 3, supported uon the joists, inclined braces 4, extending etween the joists, and sidings 5, in which is a doorway 6. These parts are common and well known and ma e varied considerably in form without a fecting the present invention.

ca g out the present invention a track is la1d upon the Hoor of the car and consists of a substantially T-shaiedxed section 7o 7, lying at one side of the oorway and secured to the floor by means of suitable fastenings '8, the bottoms of the adjacent joists being notched or cutaway to accommodate this track-section. In addition to the fixed track-section 7 there is an endwise-shiftable track-section 9, extending across the doorway and working in correslponding notches or openings in the bases of t e joists 2, which constitute the door-posts or opposite sides of 8 0 the doorway. When the door is closed, thel track-section 9 extends across the doorway and abuts the fixed track-section 7; but when the door is open the track-section 9 is slid in an endwise direction away from the fixed track- 8 5 section 7 and into a guideway at the opposite side of the doorway, so as to lie at the o osite side of the doorway, as indicated 1n ig. 4, whereby the oor of the car between the door-posts is entirely unobstructed to en- 9o able the convenient shoveling of the grain within the car.

As best indicated in Figs. 2 and 3 ofthe drawings,it will be noted that the joists 2 are s aced from the siding 5, soas to accommo- 9 5 ate the slidable door-sections 10, 11, and 12 between the joists and the sidin there being a filler bar orblock 13, filling t e s ace between each oist 2 and the siding 5 a ove the top of the oor. The lower door-section 10 roo .I

is provided throughout its lower edge with a oove or deway, preferably formed by ongitudina stri s or cleats 14, secured to opposite sides o the door-section and projected below the latter, so as to embrace the l.

u'pstanding portion'of the inverted substantlally-T-,shaped track, thereby to enable the endwisesliding of the door-section upon the y 1o of t joint between adjacent door-sections, where- 5o the exterior of the car.

5o tions open a hasp track. The next adjacent upper door-section 11 slides upon the top edge of the lowermost door-section and is provided with longitudinal stri s or cleats 15 to embrace 5 the upper edge o the lowermost door-section as a track and form a lap-joint between-the adjacent door-sections. The uppermost doorsection is likewise provided with cleats or stripls 16 to slidably embrace the upper edge e middle door-section and form a lapby the upper door-sections are supported by the lowerinost section, thereby .to maintain tight joints between the door-sections and 15 between the lowermost door-section and the floor of the car.

As clearly indicated in Fig. 8, each of the joists 2 is provided with notches 17, 18, and 19 to accommodate the strips or cleats 14,

zo 15, and 16 at the inner side of the door.

Horizontal guard-rails 20, 21, and 22 are secured to the inner face of the siding and located adjacent the upper edges of the respective door-sections, so as to prevent lat- 2 5 eral play of the tops of the door-sections, the

strips or cleats at the bottoms of the sections also serving to prevent lateral play of the` door-sections.

While the cleats or strips at the bottoms of 3o the door-sections working in the notches or guideways of the joists prevent upward play of the door-sections, 1t is roposed to further guard against upward ooseness of the door by means of a guard-rail 23, secured 3 5 between the joists and the siding and engaging the top ede of the up ermost door-section, this guar the drawings.

By reference to Fig. 2 of the dravvin s it -rail being s own in Fig. 1 of 4o will be noted that the joist 24 is slotted ongitudinally or made in spaced longitudinal Sections to receive the front ends ofthe doorsections when the door is closed, and the insertion of the door-sections into the joist or post 24 is limited by upright cleats 25, se-

cured to the outer sides of the door-sections. rlhese cleats are spaced at suitable intervals in order that the rearmost cleat may serve as a handle for opening the door-sections from There is an opening 26 formed through each door-section between the cleats 25 and the front end of the door to constitute a handhold for moving the doorsection from the outside and the inside of the car, said hole being located between the sides when the latter is open, as indicated by dotted lines in Fig. 3 of the drawings, there being a staple orkeeper 28 carried by the carframe at the outer side of the door for engagement by the hasp, which is held a ainst accidental displacement from the eeper by means of a locking-pin 29, connected to the car-frame by a suitable flexible connection SO-as, for instance, a chain.

From the foregoing description it will be noted that the present grain-door is located entirely at the mner side of the car and is mounted thereon without making any material alterations in the car-frame beyond notching the joists to accommodate the slidable door-sections between said joists and the car-frame. Moreover, the sections oi' the door are successively supported upon one another and may be independently o ened, beginning with any of the sections. 7Vhen the door-sections are open, they may be held against working across the doorway under the influence of the car, and the movable trac -section 9 may be slid to one side ofthe doorway, so as to leave the loor of the car unobstructed, and thereby permit the convenient shoveling of the grain through the doorway.

The pressure of the grain against the doorsections is slrlcient to prevent the opening thereof, and therefore it is not necessary to provide positive locking means for holding the door-sections closed.

In unloadin the grain the lowermost section is slid bac or opened, so as to permit of the grain running out through the doorway beneath the intermediate section 11, and therefore it is preferred to have the lowermostl section comparatively narrow, so as to prevent a too rapid running out of rain. After the grain ceases to run out beneat the door-section 11 the two sections 11 and 12 are then opened to give access to the interior of the car for shoveling out the remaining grain. It is in the last stage of the shoveling of the grain that the slidable track-section 9 is moved to one side of the doorway to prevent interfering with the shoveling of the grain.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed is- 1. The combination with a freight-car having a doorway and upright joists s aced from the siding of the car and provided) with upper and lower series of guide-notches, oi a grain-door formed of superposed slidable sections, each section being provided with a longitudinal guide-bar lappin the next below doorsection throughout t e length ofthe door and working 1n correspondmg guidenotches of the joists.

2. The combination with a freight-car having a doorway, of a horizontally-slidable grain-door, a fixed track-section at one side of the doorway for the sup ort of the door when open, a guideway at tIiie opposite side arri movements ofthe IOO IIO

of the doorway and in alinement with the In testimony that I claim the foregoing as track-section and an endWise-sftable traokmy own I have hereto afxed my signature section disposed across the doorway to supin the presence of two Witnesses. port Ihe door when closed and capable of be-'l JOHN ROHRBERG. mg slid into the guideway to prevent obl structing the oor of the ear when the graindoorl is open.

Witnesses HENRY FRIDAY, CHAS. CALANDAR. 

